Koehler, S. R. (Sylvester Rosa), 1837-1900 Search this
Extent:
(Box 1-6; 5.1 linear feet)
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1833-circa 1904
Scope and Contents note:
Koehler's correspondence is extensive and contains letters to and from over 300 different correspondents. For his career as curator and art critic, Koehler maintained correspondence with many American painters, including Jean F. Harfin, Edwin Howland Blashfield, Emil Carlsen, William Merritt Chase, John Robinson Tait, Samuel Colman, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Anna Lea Merritt, and Walter Shirlaw. Also found in this series is correspondence with American engravers and illustrators, many featured in American Art Review, including John Sartain, Stephen James Ferris, William Baxter Closson, Henry Farrer, R. Swain Gifford, John M. Falconer, Frederick Juengling, Robert Hoskin, Gustav Kruell, Stephen A. Schoff, J. C. Nicoll, James D. Smillie, William Wellstood, Charles A. Platt, Peter Moran, and Stephen Parrish. Koehler also corresponded with many architects, engineers, and designers, including George Corliss, William Rotch Ware, P. B. Wight, Henry Van Brunt, Russell Sturgis, Julius Schweinfurth, and Arthur Rotch.
Koehler corresponded with art critics such as Mariana Van Rensselaer, Samuel G. W. Benjamin, Russell Sturgis, Clarence Cook, and Charles C. Perkins, historians such as Charles Henry Hart, and journalists including Ottilie Assing and George Julian Harney. Also found in this collection is correspondence with authors such as Ednah D. Cheney, educators including Kuno Francke and William Unger, and museum directors and curators such as A. Duncan Savage, W. M. R. French and William MacLeod. As a writer and editor, Koehler corresponded with several publishers, including Cassell and Company, Estes and Lauriat, and E. A. Seeman.
Also of note, is Koehler's correspondence with many prominent people working in other fields including scientists Henry C. Angell and Wilhelm von Bezold, archaeologists Luigi di Cesnola, Frederic Putnam, and Otis T. Mason, natural scientists Thomas Meehan and Edward Sylvester Morse, music scholar Waldo S. Pratt, and astronomer Edward C. Pickering.
Users should note that a significant portion of the correspondence is in German. A few letters within the collection are neither to or from Koehler, but concern American art. It is unclear if Koehler collected these letters.
Arrangement:
The material in this series is arranged alphabetically.
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers, 1833-1904, bulk 1870-1890. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by the Walton Family Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
